Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-07-20
Stauntotl Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20. 1887.
Wheat and Hay.

would accomplish mucu Ioi Jul
through the long and short haul rates oi
transportation, but there has, as YET, Deen
no realization from it. If wheat and flour
and hay from the West shall bear pro-
ratio or even reduced to the same rate u
transportation charges with the hKe Pio
ducts of our Valley i'll reaching eas'oin
ports and in meeting the demands III 'no
soutbern. Atlantic and Gulf States, then
there must come to pass a better state Oh
things in the future than has existed 1or
some time in the past in selling our sur
plus of grain and hay.
Tn reference to wheat, which is subject
to so many contingencies, contrary 10
natural laws, as it passes from the garner
of the producer to meet the wants OF bread
consumers. conclusions reasonable and
warranted in view Of the supply and de-
mand are often frustrated by the lntener-
ence of spectators. These are some OF
the troubles which beset and torture the
mind of the producer of a surplus, no mat
ter how small it is, for in the seriousness
which the matter assumes, it bears VIII
the same weight upon the small farmer OF
Augusta county, as it does upon the pro-
Queer that numbers many broad fields IN
his western domain.
Bad, indeed, are the evils of dscrimina-
ting charges of transportation against us,
and reprehensible too are the commercial
al, ha nrG6nct
of the country to become the element for
the widest gambling. But notwithstand-
ing all this, the indifference of the United
States Government, or perhaps the short
sighted policy we Should say, which has
prevailed by failing to open foreign trade
intercourse, having in view the prime o.
ject of securing enlarged demands for the
enormous bread and meat surplus of this
country, is now telling upon our great
national t-agriculture-with DAM
aging and most alarming effect. However
vigorous the effort may be to change this
state of things, it will require perhaps as
many years of wise administration IN ma
tional policy to correct the crushing evil as
have been wasted in the objectionable ne
glect which has left this great country
without Navy Or Merchant Marine
The old world has been steadily opening
its hitherto barred doors to commerce and
trade intercourse, since Commodore Perry
accomplished so much for his Government
and Christian civilization with the Japa-
nese. With our wheat-producing area an
nually increasing, and the demand for our
bread-supplies reaching us by every sail
from distant lands, we have chosen to oc-
eupy the place of a feeble power, with no
means of directing ocean transportation,
and actually engaged, by the effect of the
gambling in wheat, in driving the growing
demand for our bread-stufts to look to
other countries and chimes, and to stimu-
late new production to meet its wants.
1t is wide free commerce with all coun-
tries, where now, or by possibility in the
which we, as q whole people, need, and in
its effects the Augusta county producer has
an interest of chief concern along with his
class everywhere else.
We have been lead farther in pursuing
the wheat interest than was intended,
when commencing this article, for it was
hay about which it seemed something
might at this time turn up Of more en-
couragement for the present crop than was
realized on that of last year.
From all accounts, the western grass
crop, averaging it over the face OF that
wide country, is very far from good one.
Illinois, which generally ships to the East
such vast quantities of superior hay, is now
reported short, and the new crop selling,
on the farms where raised, at ten dollars
per ton. Now if this condition of things is
general, there would seem to be a brighter
prospect for us this than last year in
marketing oGr hay.
The Chicago correspondent CT The NV
York Journal Of Commerce manages d
large bureau of crop information, and his
reports are always accurate. He says in
speaking of Illinois, on the 18th Instant
THE grass harvest is nearly over, and
shows one of the poorest crops cut for
many years. Meadows through Illinois
to-day are burned out, and are actually ia
worse condition than they were in August,
one year ago" In another part of his re-
port he says: "A severe drought stili COL
tinues over the length aid breadth Of the
State, and l have advices this morning
from Tippecanoe, Indiana, to the effect
that the greatest drouth ever known pre-
walls in that section of that State"
Drouth has more or less damaged the
wheat in the West, and what effect, if any,
the long prevailing dry weather there will
curtail the usual surplus, remains to be seen.
In applying the condition Of things there,
to our own situation, we generally realize
that VIC are but of small consequence for
influence in supplying a demand, and al
ways feel the pressure of lowering prices,
but the touch, when an advance comes
about, is just as quick to he realized in
Stauntop, and therefore it is always inter
esting to know how all these matters are,
and how they are to be as far as we can
discern them.
There iS a very good crop of hay in
Augusta county. The annual statistics
which the SPECTATOR publishe9, obtained
from the three railroads that pass through
the county, throw light in estimating the
amount Of the crop by the amount exported
the previous year. Our application has
60, forward for this information, aud in
due time it will be furnished as usual.
1t would be interesting TO know the
amount now of excess in Misrepresentation
in Augusta county over that of twenty
years ago, and SO it would be in estimating
the increased value of the grass crop,
which, however, can be approximately ar
rived at through the amount annually eX-I
ported by the comparatively late means of
deriving income from it. Since 1884 each